Hybrency

A platform focused on closing the strategy execution gap in the sales/marketing/growth/demand/revenue ops...[whatever you want to call it] function.  

Removing roadblocks and de-risking sales and marketing-related expenditure.

To create a dependable way for firms to achieve their goals.

The platform joins the phases of strategic planning, tactical execution and measurement into a circular system.

Leveraging scientific laws of sales & marketing, and then using feedback loops to optimize growth over time. Pointing teams in the right direction while avoiding common pitfalls automatically.

Allowing for the creation of a continuous, self-optimizing growth loop at scale.

Built upon hybrid service delivery infrastructure. Brands can quickly create their own high-performance teams. Full-time staff can be blended with world-class external expertise without experiencing the usual trade-offs

The platform is sector agnostic and works well in both product and service contexts, but focused primarily on the services sector for the time being.

Founder

Various

Advisory to various privately-owned company executives via a formalized, independent advisory board structure

Board Advisor

Champagne Strategy Podcast

Not suitable for junior professionals or bureaucrats.

Host of the Champagne Strategy show where we deconstruct world-class strategy, growth, marketing and the latest tech, with a sprinkling of Champagne.

We uncover modest achievers and perhaps the less famous but more interesting people of the business world. People who often keep a low profile and are hard to coax into an interview. 

They aren't the vapid self-promoter types you see on the speaking circuits, or constantly in the press. They are too busy doing great work.

Learn from their practical, wisdom and escape the world of business misinformation

Listen to an episode if you dare, but be warned, there's no going back.

Host

Australian Podcast Awards

Judging a selection of entries as part of the Australian Podcast Awards

Judge

Proptech Association Australia

Judge for entries in the Proptech Australia awards 2023

Awards Judge

Champagne Society

A passion for tasting Champagne and posting on Instagram became something bigger

Sommelier

James Hammon & Co.

Tactical Execution Agency (growth marketing) available to select clients only.

Suitable for PE firms in the services & SaaS sectors

- growth focused
- media agnostic
- creative production
- operational systems and tech-stacks
- media buying
- campaign management & optimization
- marketing asset management
- much more which could be answered in a short phone call

Director

BuildZoom

PRODUCT - 10 million page contractor sourcing marketplace in the US

TOOLKIT - Demand gen via SEO, SEM, display, social, content optimization, attribution modeling, tracking & tagging, inventory level remarketing, audience management, customer profiling & segmentation. 

RESULTS -  With no vendor support, achieved record GMV and sales in just 3 months during what is typically the quietest period of the year. SEM conversion rate doubled. Unit Economics dashboard

Growth Manager

SearchX

BDM for web development and application projects, SEO, PPC

Digital Strategist

SEO and PPC campaign/account management
BDM and sales
Client facing role

Campaign Manager

Great commercial strategy allows everyone to hit their targets and reduces stress. But it's not a planning doc and more than just product, sales or marketing. Follow for platitude-free brain energy.

If you're a senior leader responsible for high-value outcomes like customer acquisition, market share, revenue, profit, equity etc, read on

Commercial strategy involves 3 steps that are far harder than they appear
1 - Crafting product offerings
2 - Marketing and selling them successfully 
3 - Selling more at higher margins

It's extremely cross-functional yet:

Marketers will say the secret is brand, creative design & advertising 

Product/engineering will argue it's products that sell themselves

Finance will want to cut M&S, raise prices and ask about ROI

Sales will want more/better leads

Digital will want a new website or martech and more people posting on social

And they're all right - sometimes

Which is the problem. Because. choices will be full of tradeoffs, pitfalls and complexity.

Many are tempted to buy the latest tech, hire the hottest agency or buy into the pitch from a buzzword-fluent consultant.

But what you often need is just a tailored strategy that includes execution. 

My brand of independent advisory helps leaders slice through all the noise and misinformation - and sets up teams for success. 

We'll help craft your company's secret recipe and perfect this dish over time until it's something people buy, tell others about and come back for more. 

But forget 90's-era consulting full of clunky projects, models, decks & spreadsheets. 

This is modern, lean and mean strategy designed for implementation and focused on outcomes.

It works because I've combined the best parts of my expertise in:
- the classical marketing world (advertising agency experience)
- digital media & software systems (ran my own agency for 8 years)
- the Silicon Valley growth process (Growth Manager for startup in San Francisco)
- Business strategy (5yrs of applied consulting & advisory)

Connect via personalized DM, but if you want to pitch, just be specific and brief

I'm hired as a: Consultant, Advisor, Advisory Board Member/Chaair, Interim/fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Chief Growth Officer (CGO), Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) etc.

Budget
Consulting/Advisory/Workshops/Speaking ~ POA ($5k+)

Sans budget 
(see link in bio)
Newsletter $0
Champagne Strategy podcast $0
Hybrency YouTube clips $0
Follow on social $0

Solving business problems together - priceless

John James

A snippet from a recent virtual event explores the 4 growth/GTM eras: from traditional media reliance to the digital boom, privacy disruption and the new AI era (2022+). 

Matthew Daniell and I recently explored the topic of 'Marketing Effectiveness' in part 2 of a 3-part series which you can now catch up on via YT. 

I feel so much has changed in just the past 2 years let alone the last 10 since digital media peaked. And I still see job descriptions on my feed here every day which read like they were written in a bygone era (typically lagging a decade behind reality). Positions that are doomed to fail from the beginning.

Noticing the same? Interested to hear your stories below. 

And if you to know the secret to growth in the new post-AI era? Have a listen and get in touch.

Commercial Strategy for Services & Tech - Champagne Aficionado

Tis the season to be jolly, but also feeds flooded with 2026 predictions. Here's something to remind you to take them all with a heavy grain of salt. 

We can all laugh at this one, but it's pretty hard to predict the future. On the flipside, there's some predictions which have turned out exact.

I'm reminded of Scott Galloway's NYU speech where he forsees the downfall of traditional ad agency networks. Go and watch it now - it's called 'The death of the advertising industrial complex' 

He was ridiculed by many people in the industry at the time because he said something that threatened dogma, jobs and many people's belief systems. But he wasn't wrong. Just early - 9 years early. Because you'll notice advertising holding co's are rapidly crumbling as we speak. 

Got another eerily accurate prediction example you can think of?
Or one that's as hilarious as this Gartner example? 

I'm keen to hear it below.

This is an on-point list for anyone interested in the commercial returns side of digital marketing. But Rachel Kennedy is also correct in the comments

One of the few people Zuckerberg says was critical to building Meta…
Just wrote the book on digital marketing.

It's called Click Here by Alex Schultz.
15 insights that stood out to me:

1. Don't use a microscope for measurement
"If you need a data scientist and a microscope to determine if your marketing had an impact, well then, it didn’t."

2. Performance Marketing doesn't exist 
"There is no such thing as ‘performance marketing’. All marketing performs."

3. Scrutinise your MMM
"You should use models, but I believe you should only use them when you have run the experiment first, and then you must periodically back-test to make sure the result is still valid"

4. Agency partners are critical 
"I would be nowhere without my agency partners."

5. Pick an agency on results not awards
"My number one sign to look for in a creative agency is that they focus on their results over their awards."

6. Put incrementality above all else
"Remember, incrementality is everything, so you must always ask how that applies at any given stage of conversion."

7. Experiments are essential
"You cannot do incrementality without experimentation."

8. Marginal ROI drives huge yields
"There is huge yield to simple budget allocation decisions based on marginal ROI, not just looking at the averages."

9. Measurement has limits
"No measurement is perfect, and many crucial outcomes can’t be measured at all."

10. Be explicit with AI
"Anything you can do to teach the systems you are buying from what you are looking for will get you better results".

11. Ask your finance team for help
"This is helpful because the finance team is experienced and smart, and they often come up with good ideas that make us better."

12. Get the CFO to believe 
"A top-level goal of mine for the past twenty years across Meta and eBay has been that the CFO believes the measurement I perform."

13. We sell or else
"Steve Harrison’s 'Can’t Sell Won’t Sell' is a compelling read if you want to be challenged about the industry by someone willing to swim against the tide."

14. This is the right question to always ask
"Did anything happen because I ran my ad?"

15. How marketing works doesn't change
"Tools evolve, but principles are timeless."

The book is a comprehensive look inside the mind of someone who shaped modern digital marketing.

Australia just passed the 50% ratio where over half of energy comes from renewable sources. 50.1% to be exact. But the cost column is the most interesting. 

Note: some renewables require more expensive storage and release infrastructure which means direct comparisons are messy to make irl but still interesting all the same. 

Nice graph and article from Michael West

3 things the AI-era has enabled (and valuable) which weren't possible just a few years ago. What would you add?

1 - Synthetic company spokesperson

Not only are most employees unwilling to get on camera but spokespeople suffered from key person risk. Creating a financial, functional and political issue. Plus, they aged over time. 

Creating a synthetic spokesperson who never ages, doesn't take a salary, doesn't try to leverage fame for gains elsewhere, and can embody your brand without ever introducing reputational risk, in any form...

that just makes so much sense. 

2 - In-house agencies. 

There is no functional reason to outsource anything to external agencies these days. Politically, there still is. And financially, legally, there can be. But technically, no team needs to get a third party to produce any collateral, buy media and ship anything. 

Of course this is relatively new and many firms  are yet to embrace this new paradigm, but in-housing actually enables you to move much faster and more accurately. Which will increasingly be THE only source of marketing CA. 

Third party vendors just expose you to the downsides of the Principal Agent problem. 

3 - Middle management administration. 

Just helped run a Microsoft AI webinar and the things that you can do to completely automate away all the daily admin is just insane. 

There really is no functional need to EAs, PAs, team managers and middle managers anymore. Daily email inbox management, task management, team collaboration/comms, and reporting can all be heavily automated.

Meaning in the future there will only be directors setting strategy (what needs to be done and how) and executors (people doing the work). Everyone in the middle will increasingly be caught in the squeeze space. 

Which really changes former political dynamics whereby execution-level employees were traditionally viewed and treated as lower in the power hierarchy. 

Expect to pay a lot more for skilled executors in the future.  

And a lot less for hands-off managers who never get there hands dirty. 

What did I miss?

Channel Automation™

The only omnichannel solution that makes curious leads and turns them into serious buyers (TM).

Chief Executive Officer

Zero Marketing Waste™️

Delivering award winning creative x artificial intelligence to the top 8% of innovative companies

Mastermind

Reborn Cabinets

•Orchestrated 8 years of continued growth by 900% to nearly $100 million in revenue by developing marketing/sales omni-channels

• Oversaw the launch and account management of national brands: Kohler, Home Depot, and Sam's Club delivering a road map and life cycle strategy for cross functional teams in marketing, sales, and installation delivering 20% yearly increase in sales

•Increased NPR and reputation scores online from a 1 Star rating on Google, Glassdoor, and Facebook in 2011 to an average of 4 Star ratings by 2019 by implementing SaaS, open API solutions, analytics, and BI platforms that scaled world class CX as our client base grew from approx. 850/year to approx. 4100/year.

•Delivered the highest “happiness” scores from 2016-2019 from company team surveys that led to 25% (5 times the company average) of marketing team members getting promotions from their 1st year roles to supervisor and managerial positions by employing behavioral nudges and personal development and attention to every team member. 

•Awarded by Pro Remodeler Magazine as Forty under 40 in 2017 nationwide as recognition for my work with millennials and contact center excellence:

https://www.proremodeler.com/forty-under-40-vic-sun-reborn-cabinets

•Achieved Top Work Places Award in 2018 by reducing turnover from 220% each year to 68% and increasing retention rates of staff from an average tenure of 3-6 months to 4-5 years.

Vice President of Client Services

•Increased marketing lead gen from 4,000 raw leads/year to over 55,000 raw leads/year with conversions improving by +5% annually by scaling the best business facets over multiple departments and utilizing automation of IVA/IVR systems, lead generation, and UI and CX minimizing handle times from an average of 12 minutes to 2.5 minutes. 

•Developed forward facing marketing programs that started with only approx. $200,000 a month of revenue from partnerships with Kohler, Home Depot, and Sam’s Clubs that consistently improved by 30% each quarter towards a $12 million/year business model to be replicated in two other states.

•Led a team of 20 direct reports for 3 years that managed to consistently increase lead generation and efficiency conversions each year from 35% to 60% without adding 1 more person to the team.

Marketing & Technology Manager

Solid Commerce

•Increased customer subscription by 10% each quarter through the development and improvement of the cold call scripts, B2B and B2C models, and the mining of the current database.

•Generated +100% revenue growth from year 1 of start up through the consistent tweaking of marketing/sales campaigns that led to approx. 30% higher customer retention and referral rates.

•Sustained 3x growth of the business development team in year 1 by ensuring that each person in the team had 10% of their time  dedicated and allocated for personal development and training.

Business Development Manager

A1 Construction and Designs

•Grew the company revenue by 400% from 2007 through 2010 compared to an industry growth average of 30% by modernizing the marketing and sales platforms optimizing SEO, PPC, and online marketing campaigns and increasing its efficiency by 5% quarterly.

•Architected the acquisition of a local window/door company to boost the installation project portfolio from $2 million/year to $8 million per year. 

•Reduced marketing, sales, and administrative staff turnover that started at approx. 200% annually to approx. less than 90% within my first 18 months by incorporating position succession plans that increased salaries by an average of 12% each year and also dedicating 10% of each person’s paid time to training and development per week.

Chief Innovation Officer

Rogers Communications

•Delivered 200% ($200,000 per month) sales revenue from mobile phone service B2B contracts each month compared to the team average of $50,000 per month by updating the sales process and customizing the client experience with email nudges and personal “Omotenashi” style service.

Corporate Executive

I’m inspired by challenges and motivated by failure.

The role I play daily: atypical "glue guy" who keeps teams together doing better. 

People have called my approach to problems as a “Kaizen-driven” prevention strategy.

I like utilizing the elegance of numbers  and analytics and transposing such figures into the language of happiness and success for people. 

What do I do best?

Consistently innovating on ways to perfect the UI that leads to the best UX, so the most delightful CX becomes less of a dream and more of a reality. 

If you and I are strangers, just talk about the following topics and we won’t be strangers for long:

• UI and UX
• CX
• CRM
• SaaS 
• Fintech
• BI and Analytics
• Open API platforms 
• NLP / NLU
• all things AI and ML
• creative advertising 
• interesting marketing

Vic Sun

🔥Only the best view and the best dinner with our #partners from Tik Tok, Ringba, Phonexa, Leads.io, BuyerFound, Grosso University, Profitise, Zero Parallel, Kohler Co., MailCon, Troutman Amin LLP, BetterAds Solutions, and Aqueity  Check out those dancing fountains!

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🟣Channel Automation™ : happy holidays to everyone - enjoy your weekend! #partnerships #stronger #teamwork

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John James

Vic Sun

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